THE REAL HISTORY OF THE FIRST THANKSGIVING
On Thanksgiving Day, Americans gather with their family and friends to celebrate the blessings that Providence has bestowed on their beloved country.
A deep appreciation of these blessings involves understanding that they were earned. It is to understand the awesome truth of how “God helps those who help themselves” applies to the Mayflower Pilgrims and their First Thanksgiving at America’s birth.
This is an appreciation and understanding of which those on the Left are incapable – for it would mean celebrating the capitalist freedom that made that original Thanksgiving possible. That made America possible.
Thus they must distort history instead. The distortion starts in Kindergarten, with the childish make-believe of your kid’s school play portraying the noble Squanto teaching the helpless Pilgrims how to feed themselves. So let’s drop the curtain on the distortion and watch the real thing. Here it is.
The real history of the Mayflower Pilgrims was recounted by their leader, William Bradford (1590-1657) in his book Of Plymouth Plantation, completed in 1647. It is from Bradford that we learn of Squanto, who did indeed show the Pilgrims how to “set” or plant corn (a new unfamiliar crop for them).
Then we learn that the Pilgrims taught the Indians how to grow more corn than they ever had before:
“The Indeans used to have nothing so much corne as they have since the English have stored them with their hoes, and seene their industrie in breaking up new grounds therwith.”
Reading the real history of the Pilgrims is so revelatory that I want you to see it at length. It is as effective a refutation of socialism and affirmation of capitalism as there has ever been.
SKYE’S LINKS 11/24/22
Today is Thanksgiving Day, and it is my favorite holiday. Thank you, thank you to the many TTPers taking the time to read Skye's Links today. Your friendship and engagement on the forum are deeply meaningful. We are a team of like-minded friends, and sometimes not so like-minded, engaging together to understand the world better.
Our world is changing fast as global finance capitalism attempts to dominate industrial capitalism. The old system lifted the quality of life for everyone on the planet. The new system? Not so much as fee income from every facet of life and movement replaces investment in productive systems.
The photo is an old political propaganda piece first used by FDR against Hoover and later used by the Axis against American G.I.s. It successfully depicted the American Dream on this most beautiful holiday.
Little did people know that the Deep State then and the Deep State today see the simple message of prosperity as their enemy; as they see it, a happy home can afford to pay higher fees.
Please join us at Skye's Links while we discuss the changes we are seeing and the deeper meaning.
Enjoy your day, and we hope you are with your family and loved ones. And if you have a moment, share the prayers, and Grace offered before your meal today on the forum. So many TTPers want to hear each other's thoughts, especially today.
MONTEZUMA’S CASTLE
When American explorers came upon this extraordinary cliff dwelling in 1860s Arizona, they dubbed it “Montezuma’s Castle” on a whim. The Aztec ruler had nothing to do with it, of course. The Anasazi people built a number of these marvelous structures in the Southwest, high up on cliffs above a river that seasonally flooded.
For hundreds of years the Anasazi flourished, skilled agriculturalists and brilliant at constructing vast irrigation systems. Yet it all came to naught with a devastating megadrought with no rain for many decades, culminating in the collapse of the Anasazi culture and abandonment of their cliff dwellings by the early 1500s.
Another lesson that it is nature that control’s the Earth’s climate, not us. You’ll find Montezuma’s Castle above Beaver Creek south of Sedona. It’s a marvel not to be missed. (Glimpses of Our Breathtaking World #194 photo ©Jack Wheeler)
THE VOTING MORONS
You know the story: a man wakes up after a century-long bout of suspended animation to find… orbital colonies? Contact with aliens? Cheap universal fusion power?
Nope – he finds a culture inhabited by ill-dressed goons speaking in monosyllables, with no understanding of history or the natural world or anything else, surrounded by shoddy, fake technology. The president is a dreadlocked idiot. The average IQ hovers around 65.
Sure… you know that one. It’s Idiocracy, the comic film from 2006. Except that it isn’t -- it’s “The Marching Morons,” a 1951 short story by C.M. Kornbluth. That’s where the producers of Idiocracy got it, without acknowledgement, knowing that the current run of morons wouldn’t recognize it.
We’ve haven’t reached the state of Idiocracy or “Marching Morons” as of yet. But from the evidence of the midterms, we’re a good halfway there.
HOW GEN Z KILLED THE RED WAVE
With the failure of the Republican Party to achieve a red wave in the midterm elections, many explanations — and accusations — are being bandied about. Blame is attributed to abortion, Trump endorsements, election integrity, and voter fraud, and the shifting of millions of votes to Democrats by Google, Facebook, and other tech monopolies.
Marketing expert Mark Beal from the Rutgers University School of Communication and Information believes there is still another factor in the election that is being overlooked: the impact of Generation Z. An expert on this group (born between 1997 and 2015), Beal says they will wield increasing influence on local, state, and national election outcomes.
Xi Van Fleet, who as a child lived under the tyranny of Mao's Cultural Revolution and his young Red Guards, told a Dallas audience recently that she believed she had left communism behind forever, only to find that her son is now a Bernie Sanders–supporter after being indoctrinated in communism in public schools. Her son epitomizes Gen Z.
IT’S COSTING PEANUTS FOR THE US TO DEFEAT RUSSIA
Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin and Ukrainian Minister of Defense Oleksii Reznikov
From numerous perspectives, when viewed from a bang-per-buck perspective, US and Western support for Ukraine is an incredibly cost-effective investment.
Altogether, the Biden administration received Congressional approval for $40bn in aid for Ukraine for 2022 and has requested an additional $37.7bn for 2022. More than half of this aid has been earmarked for defense.
These sums pale into insignificance when set against a total US defense budget of $715bn for 2022. The assistance represents 5.6% of total US defense spending. But Russia is a primary adversary of the US, a top tier rival not too far behind China, its number one strategic challenger.
In cold, geopolitical terms, this war provides a prime opportunity for the US to erode and degrade Russia’s conventional defense capability, with no boots on the ground and little risk to US lives.
SAME OLD SAME OLD DÉJÀ VU
Merrick Garland
Attorney General Merrick Garland has just announced the appointment of special counsel Jack Smith.
But Smith’s team will not look into the Biden family quid pro quo syndicate nor its incriminating confessionals on Hunter Biden’s laptop.
Instead, it will further investigate Donald Trump’s possession of presidential records that were hauled off from Mar-a-Lago, as well as his purported role in the January 6 “insurrection.”
We know the script that will follow because we suffered through it for 22 months and spent $40 million for it under Robert Mueller’s special counsel team. Here’s what will happen.
CHRISTIANITY IN KERALA
In 52 AD, St. Thomas the Apostle, one of Jesus’ 12 Disciples, sailed down the Red Sea and across the Arabian Sea to the Malabar Coast of Southwest India to preach the Gospel of Christ. He found a receptive audience among the peaceful fisherfolk in the villages along the coast – so receptive he established a series of churches that still exist today. Some remain small and humble, others like the one above rebuilt with soaring glass and stone.
There are many Christian denominations in the Indian state of Kerala, which has the entire Malabar Coast, from the original St. Thomas Syrian Christians to Catholic, Pentecostal, Charismatic and others. Of Kerala’s 34 million people, at least 20% are Christian. Kerala is a place of relaxing beauty and peaceful serenity. The best way to explore it is via a luxurious houseboat along the many canals or “backwaters” dotted with fishing villages and churches. You’ll be warmly welcomed. (Glimpses of Our Breathtaking World #155, photo ©Jack Wheeler)
KEEPING YOUR SANITY BY HAVING THE BEST OF BOTH WORLDS
People who are extroverts – people who are more sociable, who like to be out, talk, and interact with other people, and who gladly put themselves out into new situations – tend to be happier than people who are not.
That’s great for those who, by temperament, happen to be extroverts. But what if we’re not naturally extroverted? We can still improve our overall happiness by doing extroverted things.
The delightful truth is that, from simply taking more extroverted actions, our overall happiness grows about the same as if we were naturally extroverted.
If you tend to be an introvert, if your natural comfort is to be more solitary, shy, or quietly inward, I’m not suggesting that you deny your nature, or pretend to be someone that you’re not. There are significant strengths to introversion that I’ll discuss in a moment.
But you can get some of the benefits of an extrovert as well by practicing certain skills; then you can have the best of both worlds.
TASMANIA’S MOUTH OF HELL
On the south coast of Australia’s island state of Tasmania, there is a huge sea cave the aboriginal Tasmanians called The Mouth of Hell for the shrieking and moaning the waves and wind made emitting from it. Boatsmen prefer to enter it to this day protected by a cross on their fishing boat’s bow.
The wild beauty and mystery of Tasmania is absolutely extraordinary. At 35,000 square miles, it is the size of Maine with a population of less than half a million. Towns like Hobart and Launceston are charming, but the magic is in the uninhabited wilderness that makes up much of the island as a hiker’s paradise. That and a momentous coastline almost beyond belief.
If you’re ever in Oz, especially Melbourne, don’t miss the chance to explore Tasmania. (Glimpses of Our Breathtaking World #150 Photo ©Jack Wheeler)